University students from three cities in Sonora, Mexico, recently got hooked on birding, wildlife, and habitat restoration, thanks to funding support from the Sonoran Joint Venture. It all started with a mid-winter camping trip to the Whitewater Draw State Wildlife Area in southeast Arizona.
Since 1996, the Arizona Game and Fish Department has been implementing wetlands conservation workshops in Mexico.
The American Oystercatcher is a large and charismatic shorebird that lives on sandy beaches, islands, and coastal wetlands of the temperate and subtropical zones of the Western Hemisphere.
The North American Grasslands Alliance: A Framework for Change document lays a strong foundation to bring about the deep changes that are required for a continentally integrated planning and management approach to achieve lasting sustainability of the North American grasslands. It contains foundational principles, objectives and priorities to sustain working landscapes, conserve biodiversity, and … Read more
In 2007 the SJV and Pronatura Noroeste received funds from the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act and the U.S. Forest Service International Program to develop a program and train residents of communities in or near important conservation sites to be bird guides. The idea was to provide incentives for conservation as well as a way … Read more
Rapid ongoing climate change presents new challenges to natural resource managers. Effects are usually at large landscape scales and management actions must account for future uncertainty, often based solely on locally available data. Because birds are known to be indicators of ecosystem health and function and are cost effective to survey at multiple scales, they … Read more
The 5th International Partners in Flight Conference brought the bird conservation community together to create a unified vision for full life cycle needs and addressed them with innovative approaches. The meeting focused on linking regions throughout the Western Hemisphere, working together in geographic-based work sessions to develop implementable projects. SJV Science Coordinator Carol Beardmore and … Read more
By Paulina Martinez Sarabia This May I had the honor of attending the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival as the recipient of the Tim Schantz Memorial Scholarship. Tim Schantz, well known birder and guide, died suddenly from coronary artery disease in 2001 at the age of 36 while guiding a trip to St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. … Read more
We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013 SJV Awards Program small grants. Congratulations to all recipients, and stay tuned in the months ahead to hear more about these important projects. Learn more about the SJV Awards Program on the SJV website, including details about projects we have funded in the past and … Read more
By Emily Wittman Trudging through waist high water, losing shoes in 12 inch deep mud flats, kayaking to remote sections of estuaries, and feeling the breeze whipping against your face on the boat ride to Isla Alcatraz are all in a day’s work if you are a Research and Conservation Fellow for the Waterbird Monitoring … Read more
In early February 2013, thirty attendees took part in a workshop about wetlands and bird conservation in Mexico. The workshop was organized by Sonora’s Commission of Ecology and Sustainable Development (CEDES), in collaboration with the Arizona Game and Fish Department and with support of the Sonoran Joint Venture and Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y … Read more
Since 2007 SJV partner Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory has been leading a binational effort to inventory and monitor wintering grassland bird populations in the most important grasslands in the Chihuahuan Desert. This project has produced, for the first time, rigorous information on the distribution, density, and habitat use of nearly 30 grassland species throughout most … Read more
In 1986 Canada, Mexico, and the United States adopted the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP, or Plan), aimed at conserving continental waterfowl populations and habitat. In the intervening years, NAWMP partners have conserved and restored 15.7 million acres (63,000 square kilometers) of wetlands, grasslands and other key habitats for ducks, geese and swans shared … Read more
The Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (RMBO) has released the first-ever conservation plan for grassland bird species that winter in the Chihuahuan Desert. Grassland birds have declined more steeply than any other group of North American birds. The Chihuahuan Desert Grassland Bird Conservation Plan was developed with support from the Rio Grande Joint Venture and American … Read more
Researchers recently published a paper in Western Birds about Roseate Spoonbills nesting on the central coast of Sonora at Bahía de Kino. The work is a result of the Prescott College Kino Bay Center for Cultural and Ecological Studies’ Waterbird Monitoring Program and was supported by the SJV Awards Program. Read the entire article here. … Read more
A momentous workshop was held in October 2011 in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, to develop the first-ever standardized shorebird-monitoring protocol for Mexico.
By Eduardo Palacios On 14-17 January 2012, two teams of two-observers each surveyed the Snowy Plover population wintering in Bahía de San Quintín, Baja California, Mexico. Results are shown by type of habitat and locality of Bahia de San Quintin in Table 1. On 18 January 2012 we also surveyed the barrier beach of Estero … Read more
The Montrose and Luckenbach Trustee Councils and the Government of Mexico have announced a $4 million dollar award to a U.S-Mexico partnership that will implement a comprehensive five-year program focused on restoring seabird populations on seven islands off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Improvement of nesting grounds in Mexico will create more stable and viable … Read more
The seventh Ensenada de La Paz Christmas Bird Count was hugely successful. A total of 23 participants documented a record 153 species. Some highlights included 541 Marbled Godwits, one Hermit Thrush, twenty-two Reddish Egrets and one Pomarine Jaeger.